1. Field of the Invention
Implementations of various technologies described herein generally relate to a cart that may be used to hold and transport baggage. More specifically, various technologies described herein generally relate to a baggage cart used for transporting baggage throughout an airport's baggage network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description and examples do not constitute an admission as prior art by virtue of their inclusion within this section. Airport baggage systems or networks are designed to transport baggage from a traveler's airport of departure to the traveler's destination airport. When a traveler checks his baggage with an airline, the baggage is sent to a complex baggage network and is ultimately placed on the traveler's aircraft. Upon arriving at the traveler's destination, the baggage is then transported from the aircraft to the destination airport's baggage claim area.
In order to place the checked baggage on the traveler's aircraft, the current airport baggage system sends the baggage to an internal baggage claim area where airport employees read tags that are placed on each piece of baggage to determine the flight information that corresponds to each piece of baggage. After determining the flight information, the airport employees manually lift each piece of baggage from a conveyor belt at or near the ground and place each piece of baggage in a conventional baggage cart. Typically, there are a number of conventional baggage carts that are located in the internal baggage claim area and each conventional baggage cart is assigned to a particular aircraft. The airport employees place each piece of baggage into the conventional baggage cart that corresponds to the flight information on the piece of baggage.
Each conventional baggage cart is then transported to its corresponding aircraft, where the airport employees manually lift each piece of baggage from the conventional baggage cart and place each piece of baggage on a mobile conveyor belt (i.e., mobile bag loader). The mobile bag loader then transports each piece of baggage from the ground level to the aircraft so that each piece of baggage may be placed on the aircraft. A similar process, but in the reverse order, is used to transport each piece of baggage from the aircraft to the baggage claim area at the traveler's destination. The manual lifting of each piece of baggage involved in the current airport baggage system often creates inefficient use of airport employees' energy. Further, depending on airport employees to determine which piece of baggage corresponds to which conventional baggage cart increases the likelihood of human error in making such determination.